Revolution
by InstitutesOfDragonsBlood
Summary: I can't do summaries to save myself. In a nutshell this is the cliche tale of new kids coming to Kadic, going to lyoko yada yada. The different bit is that it's done from two POVs. AxOC, OCxOC, minor UxY & OxOC later. Slight Language. RxR is appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

The ball flew through the air at a high speed… right into the goalie's hands.

"Dang it!" Ulrich Stern shouted as Odd blocked his final shot of the drill.

"Good work Stern," Jim said. "Excellent goal keeping Della Robbia,"

"Thanks Jim!" Odd called from the goal.

Ulrich walked over to the bleachers and sat down as Jim prepared the balls for the next person.

"Ok, next up is, um, Tai Crusade; never heard of him before," Jim said.

With that, a boy with shoulder length dark hair walked onto the pitch. His fringe almost completely covered his eyes and Ulrich wondered if he'd be able to see through that hair.

"Ready Della Robbia?" Jim asked. "Crusade?"

He was greeted with simultaneous yes's.

Tai ran to the centre ball and struck it with the inside edge of his toes. The ball flew towards the goal, rolled up Odd's spike of hair, and went in.

Four similar shots followed, Tai sinking all but one of them into the net behind Odd. As Tai was walking off the pitch he saw a blonde boy typing on a laptop at the top of the bleachers, this was of no interest to him; however, he was more interested in the Pink haired girl sitting next to him.

"Dominic Slater, on pitch, NOW!" Jim yelled.

Dominic, a boy with short-cropped light brown hair walked past Tai, high-fiving him as he did so, and took his shots, four from five.

_(In the lunchroom {Tai's P.O.V})_

"Are you Tai Crusade?" I turned to see Ulrich Stern, apparently Captain of the Kadic Soccer team, standing before me.

"Depends on who wants to know, and how much money I may happen to owe them," I jokingly reply. "But seriously, yes, my name is Tai,"

"I'm Ulrich, nice shooting out there, you play soccer much?" Ulrich asks me.

"Yeah, but where I come from Rugby is more popular,"

"What's your favourite national rugby side then?" He asks

"I don't have one, though if I had to it'd be the All Blacks, NZ REP!" I reply, garnering a few strange looks.

"Tai, ikz ney on the Nealand zay," I hear Dominic say from behind me.

"But seriously though; sports aren't my first theatre; sports like soccer and rugby that is; I'm more of a muso and martial artist," I say, trying to give an insight into my life.

Dominic had his plate piled up to his chest with food, though he had nothing on Odd, whose tray way piled to his nose with random assorted food items, deep fried or otherwise.

"Odd, how do you keep so scrawny?" Ulrich asks him.

"I AM NOT SCRAWNY!" Odd yells.

"Sure" Ulrich says, sitting down between Dominic and Odd.

"Looks scrawny to me," I say, tearing a chicken fillet in half and ramming it into my mouth.

I try to figure out who would finish first out of Odd and Dominic. Sure, Dom had less food, but Odd ate fast. It was a tie. I finished my food at the same time as them.

"Hey guys," Someone says to Odd and Ulrich.

"Hi Petelo," I say absent mindedly.

"What's the new guy on about?" The same person asks.

I look up to see the Blonde boy from the bleachers, standing behind him was the same Pink haired girl. I pick up my tray, take it to the depository and exit the lunchroom. I had to go to the music block to check if my guitars had arrived. I soon walk into the flash, modern music block and walk up to the head of department.

"Mr. Ain? I'm Tai Crusade, have my guitars arrived?" I ask.  
>"Yes Tai, they're just over there," He says, pointing to the six guitars propped up against the wall.<p>

There were four electric and two acoustic guitars there, five were custom designed, one was a basic acoustic. I pick up two of the electrics and hand them to Mr. Ain.

"Those two go into the locker," I say. "I'll tell you when I need them,"

Mr. Ain walks into a room at the back of the block, when he returns I hand him another electric and the custom built acoutic.

"Those two stay here, in the music office, for me to access during lessons," I say. "Thank you for your help, Sir, I have you last period today so I'll take my other acoustic then,"

I grab the remaining electric and walk out of the music room, starting to improvise a riff as I walk back toward the main school buildings. I pull my hair into a neat ponytail for science and set off to the class.


	2. Chapter 2

**NEXT LEVEL CHAPTER 2 MANEUVER!**

_(LET IT BE KNOWN THAT UNLESS I SPECIFICALLY STATE THE CONTRARY, EACH CHAPTER BEGINS FROM THE SAME POV AS THE LAST FINISHED WITH.)_

_[Let it be sung from the rooftops that I have no resemblance of ownership over the Code: Lyoko trademark and will retain my un-ownership for the foreseeable future. In the event that I do gain control of the trademark, some stuff would happen. I also do not own the trademark (If one exists) for the Next Level Maneuver phrases, along with most of my chapter opening comments, I discovered those on {Shameless plug}]_

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><p>Luck be shining on my soul, I happened to be in the same class as Dominic, though I prayed for mercy when I discovered that Odd was sitting next to him. Thankfully, Ulrich was about as tolerant of their antics as I was, and we took great enjoyment from stopping the pair in their tracks. I temporarily had to hide my face as it went slightly red when the same Pink haired girl sat in from of me.<p>

"Who here can tell me the chemical formula for limestone and at least one of its known architectural uses or alternate name?" Mrs. Hertz, the science teacher asked.

The blonde boy's hand shot up, as did mine and one belonging to a pimply faced, spectacled boy.

"Yes, Mr. Crusade, you can tell us,"

"Limestone's chemical formula is CaCO3, it has been used in many buildings, a personal favourite of mine being the Anglican Cathedral in my hometown of Christchurch in the country of New Zealand, where Limestone is called "Oamaru Stone". Thus, I have answered all three of your queries,"

"Correct…" Mrs. Hertz responded.

Smiling, I returned to scrawling lyrics onto my notebook. I was attempting to finish a new song by the end of the period and crossed out lyrics littered pages and pages of the book and were tattooed on multiple screwed up pieces of refill pad. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the song completed on time.

_(That Evening, In the dorms)_

Dominic and I walk into room 234, the room Jim told us to go to after dinner, and we discovered that it contained two double bunk beds, and the couch I had asked Jim to set up in the room had been placed next to the right hand bunk. I throw my bag on the couch and change into my pyjamas.

At that moment, the door opens and Odd and Ulrich walk in.

"Why are you in our room?" Odd asks.

"I was informed by Jim that this was our room, though this explains the bunks, I call top by the way," I say.

"Fair enough," Ulrich responds. "I assume you won't want to be on the same side as Odd,"

"Indeed," I say.

Ulrich climbs into the bottom bunk on the right hand side, while Odd climbs into the bottom on the left. Dom and I take our respective top bunks and I close my eyes, my thoughts drifting to the pink haired girl that sat in front of me in science.


	3. Chapter 3

**CUSTOM INSTITUTE OF DRAGONS BLOOD CHAPTER 3!  
><strong>

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><p><em>(Dorms, {Regular POV})<em>

Little did Tai know; said pink haired girl was in the room next to his. With the blonde boy that Tai had beaten to the punch in science.

The pair were working on some form of computer coding.

"Do you think it will work?" The girl asks.  
>"I hope so," The boy answers.<p>

_(Next Day, Lunchroom, {Tai's POV})_

I sit down next to Ulrich and look over to Odd and Dom, who were engaged in yet another eating contest; this time Odd's tray reached his forehead and Dominic's his chin. Odd was somehow winning. The blonde boy sat down next to Odd, directly opposite me.

"Oh, you must be Tai Crusade, I'm Jeremie Belpois," He said.  
>"Hi Jeremie," I reply<br>"I was impressed with your answer to Mrs. Hertz's question yesterday, What's your GPA?"  
>"It's not perfect… What's yours?"<br>"98.5, I'm slipping,"  
>"SLIPPING?" Odd says.<br>"Yes," Jeremie replies. "So, Tell me your number Tai, it can't be too bad,""Ok then" I say, taking a deep breath.  
>"Go on,"<br>"It's… 103,"  
>"IMPOSSIBLE! THAT'S ABOVE PERFECT!"<br>"Yeah, they only tell people who've done it that it's possible, see, in each test there's 3 extra points you can get, they're hidden though,"

Jeremie sits dumbstruck as the pink haired girl sits down next to me.

"Hey Aelita," Ulrich says, holding back a snicker as Odd fails to stuff a fourth croissant into his face.  
>"Hi Ulrich," She says, looking at Jeremie with a confused look on her face. "What's wrong with Jeremie?"<br>"My GPA," I tell her.  
>"What? Why? Is he disappointed? Is you GPA low for your intelligence?" She asks.<br>"The opposite of the last question," I answer.  
>"What do you mean?"<br>"I mean he seems to think that my GPA I impossible,"  
>"Why?""My grade point average happens to be one-hundred-and-three per-cent,"<br>"What?"  
>"See why he's dumbstruck?"<br>"Yes, wow,"

I return to watching eat-fest 2.0. Odd was losing ground; Dominic had destroyed most of his food mound, while Odd had half of his to go. When the pair had finally finished their competition and Dominic had left, I decided to speak up again.

"OK, who's going to officially introduce me to your good looking friend here?" I ask.  
>"You know me, Odd Della Robbia," Odd chimes in.<p>

Ulrich tips Odd's chair over.

"Not you doofus," he says.  
>"I can introduce myself," The girl says. "I'm Aelita,"<br>"Aelita" I repeat, working my tongue around the word. "A beautiful name to go with that beautiful face,"

Aelita flushed a slight shade of red.

"I'm Tai Crusade by the way," I continue. "And that should be all you need to know for now,"  
>"Well Tai, I think we'll get along nicely,"<br>"Provided Mr. Belpois over there can clear the storm from his face," I say as I exit the lunchroom.

'_Aelita,' _I thought. _'Why can't I stop thinking about her?'_


	4. Chapter 4

**FAN-FIC CHAPTER FOUR - SMART!  
><strong>

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><p><em>(That evening, dorms)<em>

I open my eyes and see Ulrich and Odd slip out of the room. I throw the pebble that was stuck in my shoe at Dom, waking him up. I motion to the door and we both commando roll off the bunks and out of the doors

"Next level commando maneuver," I whisper, spotting Odd and Ulrich entering Jeremie's room.

We slip inside with them, laying low. My jaw drops when I see Aelita there with them.

"XANA?" Ulrich asks. Jeremie nods.

"What do we tell Tai and Dom?" Odd asks.

"How about you start with telling us what in the blue hell a XANA is," I say. The four of them turn to see me and Dom, arms folded, blocking the door.

"What are you talking about?" Aelita asks as Odd charges for the door.

I catch Odd head on and strike four pressure points simultaneously, causing him to drop like a statue in water.

"No lies," I say as Odd begins to stir.

"Or what?" Odd shouts from the ground.

"First, I tell Jim about that Dog sleeping on MY couch, second, I break 97.9854309% of each of your bones, excluding the beautiful Aelita, of course, and third, I'll eat your souls. I'm dead serious,"

"NOT MY KIWI, NOT MY SOUL!" Odd screams.

"Start talking," I say.

"Wait, let us show you," Jeremie says.

_(10 minutes later, Abandoned Renault Car Factory)_

Jeremie, Aelita, Odd and Ulrich lead me and Dominic into an elevator inside the abandoned Renault Car Factory, and pushes the down button. To my surprise, it works and we end up in some sort of computer lab.

"Head to the scanners," Jeremie says.

The elevator closes and me, Dom, Aelita, Ulrich and Odd travel to a room with three metal Grecian columns.

"New kids and ladies first," Odd says, bowing to Aelita as she enters one of the columns. Dom and I follow suit; each entering one of the remaining columns.

_(up in the lab)_

"Transfer: Aelita. Transfer: Dominic. Transfer: Tai," Jeremie says. "Scanner: Aelita, Scanner: Dominic, Scanner: Tai. Virtualisation,"

_(Lyoko {woot})_

Me, Dom and Aelita drop out of the air and onto an icy plateau. I notice that I was no longer wearing my pyjamas; rather I was wearing a sleeveless combat top and combat pants with a sheath on either side. I looked over at Aelita; she was just as beautiful here as on Earth, I assumed that was where we weren't, due to the giant four legged spiders coming towards us.

I pull out the left side sword and ready myself. As I go to stab a smaller creature at my feet, I lose my grip on the swords and it falls out of my hands, but it keeps flying forwards and splits into a thousand smaller knives. The knives surround one of the spiders and cut it into a thousand bite size pieces. The sword then reforms in my hand.

"Cool, I mutter as I sheath the sword, my right hand drawing the other, this one flowed smoothly in my hand and I cleaved the head off of another spider.

"Jeremie, where are Ulrich and Odd?" Aelita asks.

"The scanners are offline!" I hear Jeremie's voice say. "Don't get de-virtualised!"

"Fair Enough," Dominic shouts at Jeremie, shooting an energy arrow from the bow he pulled from thin air. "This is fun,"

Aelita flew past me, pink energy wings protruding from her back.

'_Knew she was an angel'_ I thought, throwing the knife sword at one of the tarantulas (I think that's what Jeremie was calling them). Aelita ran into another Grecian column look-alike and then suddenly we were back in bed.

"WHAT THE FRAK?" I yell.

"Return to the past, Tai," Ulrich tells me.

"Well that makes sense," I respond, quickly figuring everything out.

'_There's a virtual world called Lyoko, stored inside a supercomputer stored inside an abandoned Renault Car Factory due to be demolished in about 2 years. An evil computer program out to destroy the world, and a group of kids to stop it,' _I think. _'Sounds smart, '_

'_If one thing is for sure, by the end of my time at this school, I will get Aelita,'_ my mind assures me. _'Jeremie Belpois, let the one-upmanship begin. I will become the bane of your entire existence, and while I'm at it, I'll steal the girl you like,'  
><em>

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><p><strong><em>(AN: I've decided to do the AxOC thing because I don't like AxJ; AxO is getting overused; AxU just doesn't work for me; and tbh, I really like Aelita. :L)_**


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE HATER!  
>YOUR EYES 'AINT READY!<strong>

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><p><em>[AN: Vacation tends to start at chapter 5, hater. Oh, yeah, I still have un-ownership of Code: Lyoko and the chapter statements. I do not own the ™ for iPod, Facebook, Huawei cellphones or "Pour Some Sugar on Me"; they go to apple inc.; The creator of Facebook (Whose name I cannot spell) , the company who makes said phones and Def Leppard, respectively]_

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><p><em>(next day, Courtyard)<em>

Ulrich, Odd and Aelita waved as Jeremie rolled away in his father'scar, off to America for his vacation. Dominic was conversing with some random girl, he hadn't changed a bit since we moved to France and I wasn't really paying attention to anything, I was busy listening to my iPod™; silently singing the lyrics of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard and typing a new Facebook status on my Huawei G6600 cell-phone.

_[A/N: That's my actual phone's make. Go Figure :L]_

'_I have 6 weeks to get Aelita before Belpois gets back,'_ I think. _'Too Easy,'_

Odd and Ulrich didn't really want to go home for the holidays and it was just too complex for me and Dom.

"Ulrich-Dear!" I hear a whiny voice calling out.  
>"Ugh, Sissi," Ulrich mutters as a dark haired girl, flanked by a large-ish boy with blonde hair and the pimply kid from science grabs him by the arm.<br>"Want me to eat her soul?" I ask him.  
>"Sissi doesn't have a soul," Odd informs me.<br>"I see," I respond.

Ulrich slips out of Sissi's grasp and we run for it. We exit the school through the front gate and take off down the street, Sissi and her gang behind us.

"I think I know where we can hide from them," Ulrich says. "This way,"

Ulrich takes off down an alleyway and jumps over the high fence, running out onto another street.

We stop in front of a house and Ulrich tries to open the gate, only to find that it's locked. Me and Dom looked at each other and he interlocked his fingers. I stand on his hands, jump over the fence, and unlock the gate. Teamwork really does count for desperate situations.

Ulrich, Odd, Dom and Aelita walk inside and I re-lock the gate. Discreet entry for all the haters.

"Smart choice Ulrich," Odd says.  
>"No sarcasm there good buddy?" Ulrich asks him.<br>"Nope!" Odd replies.

I hear the door of the house close and pray that this wasn't a bad idea.

"Ulrich?" I hear a female voice shout. Ulrich turns around slowly.  
>"Hey, Yumi," he says.<br>"Hi Yumi!" Aelita calls.  
>"Hey Aelita!" Yumi answers.<br>"Listen Yumi, we need to hide from Sissi," Odd explains.  
>"Come inside then," She says, leading us inside; just as Sissi and her two friends round the corner.<p>

"Cutting it a little close, I see," I joke when the silence becomes too much to bear. Ulrich shoots me a shut up type of glance.  
>"So Ulrich, you gonna introduce me to your new friends?" Yumi asks as we walk back out the door.<br>"The 'new friends' can introduce themselves thank you very much," Dominic says.  
>"Excuse my friend, he can be a bit… standoffish, shall we say?" I say, elbowing Dom in the ribs.<br>"Its fine, I've had worse," Yumi replies.  
>"Anyway, I'm Tai Crusade, here's my card," I say, holding out a piece of card, quickly pulling it back a few seconds later. "No, I don't have a card. Yet,"<br>"Dominic Slater, at your service," Dom says.  
>"He changes politeness rather fast, my theoretical brother," I inform our four companions.<br>"Well, we're out of school, anyone want to do some stuff?" Dom asks.  
>"Ulrich and I had plans anyway," Yumi says.<br>"Odd?" Dom asks, turning to his bunkmate with almost pleading eyes.  
>"Well, Zombie Raiders 3 is playing at the movie theatre at 2:15," Odd says.<br>"Let's go!" Dom exclaims. "Tai? Aelita?"  
>"No thanks Dom, I'd rather sit through a Justin Bieber Behind the Music show then see another bad Zombie film. Wait, can I retract that statement?" I say, the last part hoping to regain my dignity.<br>"Sure, but that does mean you aren't coming, right?" Odd asks me.  
>"Yep," I respond.<br>"Aelita?" Dom says. "You coming?"  
>"Sorry Dominic, I've got work to do on the supercomputer," Aelita tells him.<br>"You guys are no fun," Odd says sadly, kicking a pebble from the path to Yumi's gate.

Odd and Dominic head for the movie theatre, taking the right hand walk, Ulrich and Yumi walk off in the opposite direction and Aelita crosses the road, headed for the Renault Factory. This left me standing there alone and feeling like a complete loner. So, to put my plan into action, I set off for the Factory, close behind Aelita.

_(Factory, {woot})_

"Aelita!" I call out, a moment too late as the elevator closed just before the sound left my lips.

Cursing silently, I go Tarzan style on the ropes, using all four of them in my decent to the factory floor. Not being one to wait for the elevator to come back up, I jump down the shaft. Landing on the elevator roof.

_(inside the elevator)_

Strange. Aelita could have sworn she heard someone drop onto the top of the elevator. She shrugged it off as a hallucination and waited for the elevator to reach the lab.

_(Elevator roof)_

I felt the elevator come to a halt and I open the emergency hatch, dropping down silently into the elevator as Aelita sits down in the supercomputer chair. I ninja walk over to her and, without making a sound, plant a soft kiss on her wonderful pink hair. She jumps in fright at this gesture, not noticing my presence up until I gave her that kiss.

"Tai!" She screams; slightly glaring at me.  
>"Princess," I say back; smiling at her.<br>"There are more efficient ways to get my attention you know?" She asks me.  
>"Yes, but I like this one the best," I respond, kissing her hair again. "Because I get to kiss you,"<p>

Despite her best efforts to hide it, she blushes rather noticeably.

"So Princess, need any help?" I ask.  
>"Only if you can re-code the Skidbladnir within the next two hours," She answers. "Jeremie and I can't seem to get it done fast enough,"<br>"Well, let me take a look at it," I tell her taking her place at the controls of the computer.

I bring up a status window showing the amount of the Skidbladnir that had been constructed on the top left screen and open the Skidbladnir's coding window. I type lines and lines of coding into the window and hit enter. A new window containing a rotating plus appears and I sit back; allowing the programming to test itself. After a couple of minutes, the computer gives me a green tick encased in a green circle. My code had worked.

"Amazing Tai!" Aelita exclaims.  
>"You sound surprised," I tell her.<br>"I am, Jeremie and I have spent hours trying to get that done," She says  
>"Well, Jeremie isn't above perfection, is he?" I ask.<br>"No," Aelita responds, her voice starting to grow angry.  
>"Princess, calm down, OK?" I say. "I don't want to fight with you,"<p>

With that, I pull her into a sudden embrace. Aelita jumps back, shocked by my forwardness, and turns for the elevator. I follow her into the elevator and we leave the factory. Aelita refused to talk to me or even look at me the whole time we walked together, though I found it hard to take my eyes off her. She was far beyond perfection. Her beautiful pink hair blew in random directions with the wind. Her skin looked so smooth, so soft.

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><p><em>[AN: Cliffhanger-ish ending there, I know, but too bad peepsicles. Read/Review. Any review is much appreciated. Also, a version of this story from the character Dominic Slater's POV is being written to coincide with Tai's POV. The Dominic POV will be written by a friend of mine Renegation-X. And to conclude this message. I would like to request some OC's to use, I need three. PM me the character. You need to include name, age, gender, room-mate (If applicable, I may change this bit), look (Clothing, hair, eyes, etc), personality, Lyoko form, Lyoko weapon(s), Lyoko powers and Lyoko vehicle (again, I may change the vehicle, but Only if it conflicts with those of Dominic and Tai). If you sneezed during the reading of this chapter, Bless you. Peace off.]_


	6. Chapter 6

_**CHAPTER SIX: YOU 'BOUT TO GET AN ANEURYSM OFF WRITING!**_

_**(A/N: Don't own anything except for Tai Crusade, his weapon designs, and the storyline, Dominic Slater belongs to my partner Renegation-X; as does Lyra Cahill. I also noticed my chapters are quite short, but I've been trying to get them longer, so I'll put up 2 at a time if they refuse to exceed 1500 words)**__**  
><strong>_

"Want to go walk around town Princess?" I ask Aelita; finally breaking the awkward silence between us.  
>"Sure, Tai," She replies."Listen, I'm sorry about before," I say.<br>"It's fine Tai," She says. "I kind of liked it,"

I notice her blush slightly and the wind blows her scent over to me. I had never smelt something so amazing in my life, not even the smell of the candy burgers I made last year came close to this. That went a long way to say, considering that the candy burgers are the second most amazing smell I've ever smelt. She smelt of some strange blend of Rose, Jasmine, Strawberry and Mint. It was effectively the same as pet treats for my nostrils.

"Wow," I whisper, so that only I could hear.

"Aelita, listen, I, uh, I really like you,"  
>"Ummm, I don't know what to say Tai…" Aelita responds.<br>"How about you don't talk," I say, and then kiss 's the greatest feeling I've ever had. My tongue lightly traces the outline of her lips; the taste is indescribable. Logic tells me to break off the kiss; instinct won't listen. Logic wins in the end and I step back, leaving a shocked Aelita standing dumbstruck at my act.  
>"There," I say, taking another step back. "You know how to tell me the way you feel,"<p>

Despite saying that, I was mentally powerbombing myself through eight burning glass tables. I could have messed up my only chance with Aelita through one dick move. Though I could thankfully see some form of thought on her lovely suddenly throws her arms around my neck and locks her lips with mine. She was serious with this kiss, I could feel the passion she was putting into it. She snuck her lips in between mine and used them to pry my mouth open. At that moment, though every fibre of my being was protesting against it, I pulled away.

"Princess, slow down," I say, gasping for breath."Why?" She says, planting another swift kiss on me.

Those kisses were like ultimate bliss. I just wanted more.

"A) We're in public. B) You keep kissing me like that and I think I'll lose control," I reason."Hmmmm; what if we went somewhere private?" She asks, trying to compromise."Princess, as much as I'd love to, not right now," I say sadly, giving her one last kiss.

We hold this kiss for a few seconds before the ground begins to shake violently. Having lived in Christchurch, I wasn't particularly fazed by it. I held Aelita tightly, making sure she was safe. The shaking kept growing in intensity, throwing me off my feet, taking Aelita with me. I angled my fall so I landed below Aelita. This, of course, left us in what would have been a very awkward position had I been face up.

I instinctively powerslide from under her, knocking over a certain Odd Della Robbia and almost colliding with Dom.

"I thought the movie didn't finish 'till 5," I joke.  
>"It doesn't," Dom responds. "XANA possessed a whole crew of people at the theatre and now I bet he's behind these 'quakes,"<br>"Should we go to Lyoko?" Aelita asks.  
>"You guys go and take care of things on Lyoko, I'll stay here," Dom tells us, turning around as the three of us still there head to the factory.<p>

_(Factory floor {woot})_

"We're going to need someone up here to keep an eye on things," I say.  
>"No Tai, we've all got to go," Aelita says.<br>"What if something happens to the scanners?" I ask.  
>"Easy," Odd says. "Just don't get de-virtualised,"<br>"True, normally I'd argue that with my luck I would be de-virtualised," I say. "But today, I'm feeling lucky,"  
>"Good," Odd says.<br>"So then, Odd, you just have to ask yourself this question: Do you feel lucky?" I say.  
>"Well do you, Punk?" Ulrich finishes, landing beside me.<br>"I do actually," Odd says, smiling.

We take the elevator down to the supercomputer lab and I step out, motioning for the others to go to the scanner room. The elevator closes and I sit down in the chair.

"Transfer, Aelita; Transfer, Odd; Transfer, Ulrich. Scanner, Aelita; Scanner, Odd; Scanner Ulrich," I say. "Virtualisation,"

I materialise the Overboard and Overbike, also coding in one additional vehicle that Jeremie had no data for, before setting up the return to the past to occur immediately after the tower's de-activation. I set up a delayed virtualisation and take the drop to the scanner room.

(Lyoko; Mountain Sector {Double Woot})

I drop from the sky and land in a large seat positioned inside a semi-circle. The semi-circle closes over and I'm left inside a large black wheel. I lean forward and motion for Aelita to take the seat behind me. She nods and jumps into the very adequate space between the back of the chair and my back. Armrests snap up on either side of the wheel, enclosing Aelita and I inside.

"The tower is 47.98 degrees latitude by 19.31 degrees longitude," I tell Odd and Ulrich, confused looks cross their faces. "Or, just follow me,"

I take off in the exact direction I just explained, Odd and Ulrich close behind. We round a bend in the rock formation we were riding on and are faced with a field of XANA's monsters. I draw the left sword from its scabbard and drop it over the armrest. It breaks into the thousand knives. The knives flying towards the group of walking boxes.

"Well, that should take care of them," I say, skidding to a halt. "Odd, Ulrich, get rid of the walking seafood,"I motion to the six large crabs and lay back, forgetting that Aelita was behind me. I soon remember that, however, when the back of my head meets her face.

"Mmmm, that's comfortable," I say, snuggling into Aelita. "Odd, Ulrich, you mind if I just stay here for a bit?""Actually Tai, yes," Odd says, dodging a laser from one of the Krabes.

"Fine," I sigh, opening the top of my wheel and jumping out, un-sheathing the smooth flowing sword as I do so. I cleave one of the Krabes clean in half and Aelita destroys another one, so there were four there now.

Odd, Ulrich, Aelita and I dispatch them in a short amount of time. I feel a sharp pain in my back and drop momentarily as a seventh Krabe charges its top laser to finish me off. Just before the Krabe fires, the knives surround it and destroy it.

"I thought we agreed, don't get de-virtualised," Odd says.  
>"For the record, Odd," I respond. "I DON'T get de-virtualised,"<br>"If you say so," Odd says, killing a small monster that looked remarkably like a bent thumb.

I throw the knife sword again, this time it kills the entire squad of nine thumbs. I smiled. I was beginning to like this whole Lyoko deal. Aelita runs into the tower and punches in the code. Yet the tower doesn't deactivate, what's more, a large amount of giant bowling balls, I think they were called Megatanks roll towards us. One Megatank opens on its axis and blasted a thin laser on a 180-degree plane. I sidestep and hold out my flowing sword in the laser's path. The laser stops against the blade and holds there for a few moments. But then the blade snaps. I was thankful for the fact that I stepped out of the path of the blast. During my bout of thankfulness, the Megatank rolls on it's axis, turning the 180 blast into a 360 radius blast, I drop onto my back, throwing the knife sword at just the right angle, destroying the tank, thankfully for me, the radius blast destroyed the rest of the Megatanks. I was finding that XANA's monsters didn't come smart. He needed to upgrade his quality.

"Does XANA actually have any sort of idea what intelligence level his monsters have?" I ask nobody in particular.  
>"Don't think so!" Odd shouts from across the plane.<p>

_'Figures,'_ I think. I hold out my left hand, palm outstretched, waiting for the knife sword to reform. The usually instant return doesn't occur for 30 seconds and I give up. No weapon, nothing that would deter me. The thousand knives generated by the sword throw lay scattered across the ground, if I could just grab one of them, I'd have some form of weapon. Of course, XANA had to get in my way by sending more thumbs.

"How many giants are there on Lyoko, XANA must need a lot of hands for all these thumbs," I say."Thumbs?" Odd asks. "Oh, you mean the Kankrelats,""Right, I'm gonna keep calling them thumbs, It's easier," I tell Odd.I sweep away the Kankrelats, thumbs as I call them, and pick up a pair of knives. I lob the small blades at the thumbs, destroying them. I do this until all eight of the thumbs are gone. "The tower," I begin. "Why didn't it de-activate?""I don't know Tai," Aelita says."Well, figure it out, I have a gut feeling that the supercomputer isn't gonna survive if these earthquakes keep up, and neither is Dom," I say."Or Lyra," Odd interjects.  
>"Who?" Ulrich asks.<br>"Lyra Cahill, Dom's crazy about her from what I can tell," Odd answers.  
>"She wouldn't be that purple haired girl that Dom was chatting to when Jeremie was leaving?" I ask.<br>"Yes, though I think the hair was violet," Odd says, looking up at his purple diamond.  
>"Whatever you say spike," I say.<p>

Aelita runs into the tower for the second time, or, she did, until it disappeared. So, no tower; that explains things. I stare out onto the horizon and I catch a glimpse of a red aura.

"Found it," I say, climbing back into my wheel. "Coming guys?"  
>"May as well," Ulrich says, mounting his Overbike; Odd jumps onto the Overboard and Aelita hops in behind me. The armrests snap up instantaneously, and we set off to the tower I spotted. I hoped that this was a real one.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

**A-WHAT UP?: CHAPTER A-SEVEN!**

_(A/N: Scyphozoa, it looks to me like a skinny Tentacruel. Might not to you. By the way, still have no ownership of Code Lyoko or my chapter intro phrases. Or Pokémon for that Matter)_

We arrive at the tower without much trouble, until the big jellyfish turned up. It vaguely resembled a skinny version of the Pokémon Tentacruel. Only with far fewer tentacles, and the eye logo thing. Being un-armed as I was, there wasn't much I could do. Odd was almost out of lazer arrows, and with no-one there to reload for him, he'd become as useless as me soon enough. Then again, I'm never useless.

The skinny Tentacruel wraps one of it's tentacles around Aelita and lifts her into the air, placing other tentacles at her temples and the centre of her forehead. I look over to Ulrich, a plan forming in my head.

"Ulrich, throw me one of your swords!" I yell.

Ulrich, thankfully, obliges and now I have a weapon again.

"Odd, you arrow its face off, Ulrich, you go at it from the left, and I'll take the right," I say, directing traffic.

Odd fires about fifty lazer arrows at the Skinny Pokémon look-alike's face thing, whilst Ulrich and I slice the bejesus out of its sides, or ribs, had the jellyfish had any.

I felt a small bump on my right shin. I cast an eye down and found that a thumb was head butting my leg. Huh, that was rather amusing. I kick the thumb away and slice off the tentacle holding Aelita.

I slide Ulrich's sword back to him and catch Aelita as the Scyphozoa drops her. I cradle her in my arms for a few moments, temporarily losing sight of the objective of the whole mission, getting lost in her partially open eyes. They were a perfect shade of emerald, as if someone had put the actual gems inside her eye sockets.

"Tai…" She says. "I have a tower to de-activate,"  
>"W-what?" I say, snapping out of my trance. "Oh, right, before Dom and his girlfriend get squashed by metal, concrete or glass, or, if they're unlucky, plastic,"<p>

I set Aelita back on her feet and she runs into the tower. She punches in the code and this time, it thankfully works. The tower's aura fades from red to white and the silvery bubble starts up in the bowels of the supercomputer hard-drive. Soon the bubble envelops the factory, then Kadic, and then the base and eventually the entire planet as time reversed itself.

_(Back in time)_

"Well, we're out of school again, anyone want to do some stuff this time?" Dom asks.  
>"Ulrich and I are going to have to re-do our plans now," Yumi says.<p>

Dom nods at Odd, their plans already mapped out.

"Well, we never saw the ending of Zombie Raiders 3," Odd says.  
>"You're right, maybe we will this time," Dom says to his bunkmate.<p>

I turn to Aelita, smiling at her. She turns away from me.

'Talk about mixed signals,' I think, putting my arm around Aelita, pulling her against me. She decides to lean into the half embrace. Mixed signals again.

"So Dom, when are we gonna be properly introduced to your girlfriend?" I ask.  
>"Girl-what?" Dom shouts. "Oh, you mean Lyra, right?"<br>"That would be who I'm talking about, yes," I answer.  
>"When I do," He says.<br>"That's pretty vague," I tell Dom.  
>"Too bad, Tai," Dom retorts.<p>

I laugh at that, elbowing him in the ribs, like normal, before he and Odd head away to go see the movie. Ulrich and Yumi head off towards the banks of the River Seine, the river our factory was on, though they would be a few miles upstream of it.

"Aelita, are you OK?" I ask her.  
>"I don't know Tai," She answers. "I have a lot of different feelings conflicting with each other at the moment,"<br>"Well, how about you start by telling me," I say to her. "But first, lets go somewhere more private to talk, walk with me,"  
>We walk together, and end up in the forest. We sit down against the trunk of a rather large and by extension, old tree.<p>

"So Princess, tell me what's up," I say.  
>"Well Tai," She begins. "To start off, I really like you, but I feel the same about Jeremie, so I feel guilty for kissing you, but I want to kiss you more,"<br>"Anything else?" I ask, putting an arm around her again.  
>"Yes. I get angry at Jeremie easily because, well, how can I put this tactfully?" She says, leaning in towards me.<br>"He has the emotional understanding capacity of a thimble?" I offer.  
>"Exactly," She says gratefully. "But you Tai, you have a lot more understanding for feelings,"<br>"That's quite strange, considering that I've felt for while that emotions are a lost cause," I say.  
>"Just remember, you don't HAVE to be with me OR Jeremie," I tell her. "I'd be fine with being just your friend,"<br>"Thank you Tai," She says, kissing me lightly. "You've helped me out a lot,"

I move my arm from around her shoulder to around her head and pull her lips up to mine. I break off quickly, however.

I pick up my phone and look through the photos stored on it. Most of them were of parts of my Native New Zealand. Be it a big fish head in the tavern in Moeraki, or the shaped hedges in two separate locations between Christchurch and Invercargill, or even a simple shot of the front of my school in Christchurch. I eventually came across my favourite picture of all.

It was a picture of what I referred to as my Wolf Pack There was a full range of person size in the group of five, one small, one tall, one small-medium, Dom, perfectly medium and me, the large-medium. We covered the whole spectrum of person size, to say the least. We each wore Aviator sunglasses, with our names on them, though the image made this difficult to see, they were masking our eyes and making us look rather badass.

"Who are they?" I hear Aelita's soft, sweet voice asking, I had forgotten she was there.  
>"My friends back home, and me," I say.<br>"Who's who?" She asks.  
>"That's Alex," I say, pointing to the shortest one.<br>"André," I point to the skinny one, standing next to Alex.  
>"Dom," I point to Dom, he was in the middle.<br>"Me," I point to the long haired, tall-ish boy.  
>"And Liam," I don't bother to point, it's obvious he's the tall one.<br>"They look nice," Aelita says.  
>"They are, I miss them," I say, a hint of sadness in my voice, and slight tears welling in my eyelids.<br>"It's fine Tai, I understand," She says.  
>"It's my turn to thank you Princess, you're honestly the most amazing girl I could ever have dreamed of,"<p>

She blushes amazingly obviously at that statement. I chuckle and lightly embrace her. I move away, close the image viewer and check the time. 3:00 pm. I stand up, pocket my phone, and fix my jacket.

"Well Princess, I've got stuff to do, you should  
>head home, I'll be there in half an hour or so," I say.<p>

I walk off before she could answer me, and walk into "The Base."

It was one of the newer designed shopping centres, not disaster proofed, because of the ignorance of everybody. People think that disasters, natural or otherwise would never happen to them. I thought that too, until Christchurch got the Earthquakes.

I walked past a display of Justin Bieber merchandise. It took every fibre of my being to keep myself from kicking the cut-out over and burning the books. I swing around a large concrete pillar into a music shop.

"Next level parkour maneuver," I whisper to myself, dismounting the swing with a front flip, landing in front of the rock music section. With a substantial value of Euros in my bank, I could buy all the music I wanted. I grabbed some Metallica, Pantera, Disturbed, Anthrax, Megadeth, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, 12 Stones, Avenged Sevenfold and Subdigitals CD's.

I pay and head back to Kadic. Not bothering to pay attention to where I was walking, I walked right into the person I was thinking of: Aelita.

"Aelita!" I exclaim.  
>"Tai?" She questions.<br>"Yes," I say.

We walk into the dorm buildings, no one, not even Jim was in sight. So we walk into room 234.

I throw my bag of CD's onto my bed and sit down on the couch. Aelita sits next to me, resting her head on my shoulder. I quickly check the time 4:57 pm, Dom and Odd would be back in little over 30 minutes, and Ulrich would be back in about an hour. So I had a while where it was just me and Aelita.

"Princess," I begin. "I want to know something,"  
>"Yes?" She asks.<br>"Do you really have that strong of feelings for me?" I ask her.  
>"You know, I'm pretty confused right now, but I think I might," She answers.<br>"True," I say.

I get up off the couch. I jump onto my bed and pull out my laptop. I had a history assignment that my teacher from Christchurch insisted I email to him. Strange thing, considering I didn't go to that school anymore. It may be because I left halfway through the assignment.

I finished the assignment, making a vague effort, and emailed it off to my teacher. He'd better appreciate that I decided to do his work, when I was in my own sea of work in France. But with a 103 GPA, it can't be too bad. I'd be done by Monday. Coincidentally, on Monday we had an optional trip to some islands in the upper Seine, forty miles from the factory. I had signed up, as had Aelita and to my surprise, Odd, Ulrich and Dom had too. That was something I didn't expect. Though I noticed that Lyra was going too, so that could have been the draw card for Dom. I WAS planning to write some more new songs, but I decided I had ages to write music.

I clambered back down and walked over to the couch.

"Aelita, are you OK?" I ask.  
>"Yes, Tai, I'm just going to go to bed," She answers.<br>"Ok,"  
>"Thanks for everything,"<p>

I pull some refill pad from my desk and draw up the bars for the new song I decided to work on. I was just about finished with the epic guitar solo that would conclude the song when Dominic staggered in and dropped face first onto Odd's bed.

I decided I'd follow his lead and head to sleep. I jumped back onto my bunk, slipped into the covers, lay down my head, and thought.

My thoughts were scattered, I first thought about Aelita, but then my mind drifted to Curse of Anarchy productions; The company I ran back home that produced all my music, me and Dom's wrestling federation's DVDs and so much more. Then I drifted to my actual music, before I finally nodded off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

(A/N:OK, so my laptops killed itself effectively, and all my stuff was on there, so I've pretty much lost it. D: on a brighter note:)

* * *

><p><strong>YEAH, IT'S CHAPTER EIGHT<strong>

I woke up a few hours later to see that Dom and Ulrich had already left. Odd was still sound asleep, so naturally, I threw his dog at him. He woke up instantly. Smiling, I barrel roll off my bunk, landing in a Jedi bow. I grab my choice of clothing for the day. A black T-shirt with the Avenged Sevenfold Deathbat logo on the front and the phrase "He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man" on the back, a grey denim jacket, a pair of black jeans and my aviator sunglasses.

I shower and change quickly. I put my sunglasses on and walk out of the dorm building.

"Time to roll," I say as I join up with the group of students I would be travelling with.

It seemed that Dom's lot had just left. I had skipped breakfast, and I was feeling the effects ever so slightly.

Meh, I can eat when I'm dead. Of course, that observation was ridiculously incorrect, as the concept of death would leave me without a valid way to consume anything, unless I was in one of Odd and Dom's favourite films.

"Mr. Crusade?" I hear Mr. Ain, my Music teacher call out.  
>"Here sir," I respond politely, before returning to my debate over the possibility for me to eat when I was dead.<p>

The `yes` side was winning, until the heavenly scent of Rose, Jasmine, Strawberry and Mint all mixed together invaded my mind. Aelita was here. I made no effort to find her, as I was more caught up with the actual task at hand and besides that, I was busy listening to `Bat Country` by Avenged Sevenfold.

"Can't you help me as I'm starting to burn," I sing.  
>"All alone," I hear another male voice reply. I think I found a partner<br>"Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction," I continue. "My confidence is leaving me on my own,"

"All alone," He replies.

"No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention,"

"You like A7X, Crusade?" The boy asks. I look up and identify him as Zachary Sullivan, from my music class.  
>"Zacky," I reply. "Of course I do, that's why I call you `Zacky`, in honour of Zacky Vengeance. Since you play rhythm guitar and so does he,"<br>"True," Zacky replies.

"Miss Stones?" Mr. Ain calls.  
>"Here, Mr. Ain," Aelita replies in her soft, sweet voice.<br>"And finally, Mr. Sullivan," Mr. Ain says

"Present," Zacky replies.

I sit down in a window seat halfway down the bus; Aelita looks like she may sit with me, but Zacky swoops down next to me. Aelita, looking saddened, sits across the aisle with Odd.

Me and Zacky spend the better part of the bus ride entertaining people with our amazing re-enactments of Avenged Sevenfold songs. Everyone's favourite seemed to be `Beast and the Harlot`, so we sang it twice.

"She's a dwelling place for demons," Zacky and I sing in union. "She's a cage for every unclean spirit every filthy bird and makes us drink the poison wine to fornicating with our kings,"  
>"Fallen now is Babylon the Great!" I finish, drawing the song to a close.<br>"You know Zacky, you're not too bad a singer either, wanna join my band?" I ask.  
>"Sure, why not?" Zacky replies.<br>"Anyway, do you think Mr. Ain would let us sing A Little Piece of Heaven?" I say.  
>"Nope," Zacky replies.<br>"Thought not, but he seemed OK with us doing Nightmare, so let's give it a shot eh?" I respond.  
>"Sure,"<p>

Smiling, I set up an instrumental version of the song on the speakers and stand up.

"OK, this will be our last rendition of an A7X song on this bus ride, this is called `A Little Piece of Heaven`," I say.

We end up having everyone swaying to the gentle beat until…

"Must have stabbed her fifty fucking times," I yell  
>"I can't believe it," Zacky yells in response<br>"Ripped her heart out right before her eyes,"  
>"Eyes over easy,"<br>"Eat it!"  
>"Eat it!"<br>"Eat It!" We yell the last `eat it` at the same time.

I take a few moments to laugh at the shocked expressions on people's faces as Zacky continues the song. I rejoin him soon after.

"Cause I really always knew that my little crime would be cold that's why I got a heater for your thighs," Is all we have time to sing before the bus rolls to a stop.  
>"Damn, I really wanted to get further into the song," Zacky says to me.<br>"Yes," I reply. "Now then, if you'll excuse me,"

I walk over to Odd and Aelita.

"Tai, wow, you're an amazing singer," Odd says.  
>"Thanks, Della Robbia, you play lead guitar right?" I respond.<br>"Yeah, why?" Odd asks.  
>"My band needs a lead guitarist," I tell him.<br>"I'm in!" Odd replies  
>"Excellent," I say, grinning.<br>"Now then, all we need is a Drummer and a Bass player, right Crusade?" Zacky asks me.  
>"Nope, Dom's the drummer, we just need a bassist," I tell Zacky.<br>"Odd, Aelita, you two know anyone who can play bass reasonably well?" Zacky asks.  
>"Ulrich can," Odd chimes.<br>"Perfect, call him and tell him about it," Zacky says.

Odd walks off to make the call and Zacky leans towards me, whispering something unintelligible into my ear before he runs off to talk to Mr. Ain. I look over at Aelita, smiling at her. She turns away from me and walks towards the kayaks we would be using for the first portion of the trip. I shrug, and start up my play list on my iPod.  
>I sit behind Aelita in one of the kayaks. I hum through the whole downstream ride. I had a tugging feeling that this was a bother to Aelita. We passed the island Dom was on and soon afterwards, we had made land on our island. The moment I set foot on the island, I see a single goose. It reminded me of something I had seen The Rev do on an Avenged Sevenfold DVD.<p>

"Look at the size of that fucking duck!" I yell. "Look at that duck!"  
>"Tai… are you OK?" Aelita asks me.<br>"Jesus Christ! Come here fucking… stallion duck," I say, running towards the goose.  
>"Tai!" Aelita squeals.<br>"He's not afraid at all, He's not afraid at all," I say happily. "He's not afraid at all!"  
>"He is Tai!" Aelita screams at me as I walk back towards her, Odd and Zacky.<br>"That's the biggest fucking duck I've ever seen in my life,"  
>"Tai, that's a goose," Odd informs me.<br>"If the Rev says it's a duck; then it's a fucking duck," I tell Odd, with a perfectly serious look on my face. I then turn, pulling out the machete that each group had been given and start hacking away at the thick bush.  
>"Tai, there's a path," Zacky says.<br>"Yeah, but this way is more fun," I reply.  
>"Can't argue with that logic," Zacky replies, following me into the bush; Odd close behind him.<p>

{Island Shore, normal POV}

Aelita looked into the bush where Tai, Zachary and Odd had ventured not long before, contemplating whether or not to go in behind them, when she felt someone put their hand on her shoulder. Aelita turned to see a tall boy with short cropped black hair standing before her.

"Hey there," the boy says.

"Uh, hi," Aelita says nervously.

"You look lost," He says.

"No, I'm just deciding something," Aelita says to him.

"Well, I'm Scott Calibre, and I've decided you'll be my girlfriend," Scott says.

"No, I'm pretty sure I won't be," Aelita says, running off into the bush, Scott on her tail, hoping to find Odd, Zachary and Tai soon.

{In the bush, Tai's POV}

I heard a scream, and I paused for a moment; handing the machete to Zacky. He takes over my job as chief bush hacker as I drop to the back of the trio. I turn to face the path that I had created in the bush. It was roughly three point six seconds later that Aelita ran right into me. The shock of this knocked us both over, and Aelita landed on top of me.

"Hi there Princess," I say. "How are you?"

"Tai, do you know a Scott Calibre?" She asks me as we stand up.

"Yes, why?" I reply.

"He's following me," Aelita tells me.

"That little mother…" My voice trails off as Scott emerges.

"Crusade," Scott says; stopping in front of me, his eyes moving to Aelita as she hides behind me.

"Calibre," I return, giving him a half polite nod.

"I see you've met my girlfriend," Scott says.

"You mean Aelita? Yeah, we've met, and she's not your girlfriend," I say angrily.

"Yeah, and that thing you chased wasn't a duck," Scott says.

"If the Rev says it's a duck, then it's a fucking duck," I reply.

"The Rev's dead Tai," Scott says.

"Yeah, that doesn't mean that everything he said has disappeared," I tell Scott. "You see Scotty boy, you may have broken my ankle once, but remember what happened when I healed, I beat you within an inch of your life,"

"Yes, and I can break your neck just as easily,"

"I'd like to see you try,"

"So would I for that matter," Zacky says, walking up to my side. Odd does the same on the other side.

"You see Scotty boy, in a modern society, the majority always defeats the minority. On an unrelated note, bye," I say, as a large tree falls between Scott and my group, cutting him off from us.

"Well that was fun," I say with a bored tone.

"Indeed," Zacky says as we walk away.

"Tai, why was he chasing me?" Aelita asks.

"Because that's what Scott Calibre does, he chases innocent girls that he labels as his `Girlfriend` and what I do, is stand in his way," I answer. "He breaks my ankle, I nearly kill him, etcetera,"

I hit play on my iPod again, this time hearing the sound of `A Little Piece of Heaven` fill my ears.

"Zacky! Let's finish `Heaven`," I say.  
>"Yeah!" Zacky responds and we soon begin to sing the messed up song.<p>

{Soon Afterwards}

"We're coming back, coming back," Me and Zacky whisper evilly. "We'll live forever, live forever. Let's have a wedding, have a wedding. Let's start the killing, start the KILLING!"  
>"Tai, that song is horrible!" Aelita screams.<br>"Princess, relax, at least Tai didn't write it," Odd says.  
>"True," Aelita says.<br>"OK then, Princess," I say. "How about a little song dedicated to you then?"  
>"O…K?" Aelita says, uncertainty creeping into her tone.<br>"This one's called "Seize the Day" I say.

{After Tai's performance}

We finally came out onto the trail, right in front of Mr. Ain.

"Crusade, Sullivan, Stones, Della Robbia, I thought we'd never find you," He says.  
>"Oh, don't worry Mr. Ain, we were fine, I think it's Scott Calibre that needs help," I say.<br>"Scott Calibre? Who's he, there was no Scott Calibre on this trip," Mr. Ain responds.  
>"Right, well, he's somewhere in the bush, he was with us, but a tree blocked his path," I say.<p>

Mr. Ain leaves us be and we walk back along the trail, until Odd gets plucked from our group by Sissi, apparently Odd was slated to be with her group. Meh, he could survive. Zacky was ahead of Aelita and I by about ten paces, so Aelita felt it safe to talk.

"Tai, are you OK?" She asks.  
>"Me? I'm perfect," I answer.<br>"Are you sure? I'm worried about you Tai," Aelita says, taking my hand in hers. "Ever since Scott turned up you've been on edge,"  
>"Well, Calibre does that, he's not a good person to be around," I say. "Stay away from him, please,"<br>"OK Tai," Aelita says, looking into my eyes.  
>"Look, you know what, do what you want OK? You're your own person, I can't control you,"<br>"OK,"

I let go of Aelita's hand and we walk up to Zacky.

"Tai, you're a genius, do saplings walk?" Zacky asks.  
>"Not under normal circumstances, no," I say.<br>"Well, these ones are," He says, motioning to a group of saplings, all with the eye of XANA upon their trunks.

The saplings were mutated to a larger proportion, and in fact looked like branchless Christmas trees with arms. One lunges at Aelita and I cut it off with a sudden spin kick. Zacky swipes at another. I knew I had to get Aelita to the factory, but the factory was a few miles away.

"Zacky, get Aelita to the kayaks, Now!" I command, fighting off more mutant plants.

Zacky looks sceptical, but obliges nonetheless, he grabs Aelita by the wrist and runs towards the shore with her. I commando roll forwards and snap a plant-monster's branch… arm… thing in two on my knee. I then crush the top of the trunk with my free leg.

I soon begin to struggle to fight off all of the mutant shrubs. They surround me and I decide to randomly throw a ninja tornado kick to see if it would work. Surprisingly enough, it did. Visibly beaming, I super kick another mutant shrub whist punching another.

"This is gonna come back to haunt me soon, the plant demon angel ninja fairy will hate me forever. Hahahaha," I say, laughing as more and more shrubs pile on me. I silently hope that Zacky had got Aelita to the kayaks.

Aelita. What if Zacky hadn't been able to get her there? This thought became energy, and I flung the twelve shrubs from me, tornado kicking them all in half. I run back down the path, finally realising I had a machete. I used the machete to hack away at shrubs that got in my way.

When I finally got to the shore, I saw extremely volatile waters and was buffeted by heavy winds. There was no way Aelita was gonna get through that alone unless…

_'Zacky,'_ I think. _'Zacky's gone with her,'_

Without thinking, I grab another kayak and throw it into the water; I dive in soon afterwards, fully clothed as I was. I quickly clamber into the Kayak and begin rowing furiously to catch up with Zacky and Aelita. The waves, which I have a distinct feeling were XANA's doing. My hunch was confirmed when the waves changed motion to mess with my rowing. It had come to my attention that XANA loved to mess with people.

The waves rammed into my kayak, flinging it ashore on the other island, me along with it. I skid along the rocky shore, feeling multiple lacerations opening on my left cheek, arm and leg. I'm helped up by Jim who looks at me like I'm completely insane, though for all I know, I might be. I shunt away from Jim and stagger towards the coast. Hoping to see some form of life in the waters. Or at least a Kayak on the opposite bank. The storm clouds, however, cast a dark shadow over everything, and the choppy waves don't really aid me much.

I look across the terrain, noticing a large, rather catapult like object, apparently made of broken boat and kayak. I see Dom and someone who could only be Lyra working on it. Zacky sits on the bank, feet dangling above the water and Aelita is sitting by herself against a tree. I look at Dom, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a catapult, no time to explain. I'm launching myself and Lyra together first. You can send Aelita off if you wish." Dom says, answering my unspoken question.  
>"But doesn't Aelita need to go regardless?" I ask.<br>"True. But It'd be beneficial if you said your goodbyes and... Well I don't know. Just... Yeah." Dom replies, securing himself and Lyra to the catapult.  
>"Well Slater, good luck, because if your catapult plan is a fuck-up, we're all dead," I say as Dom and Lyra go flying.<p>

I walk towards where Aelita sits, I drop down between the two.  
>"So, how's XANA treating you?" I say.<br>"Badly," Aelita says, extending her arm; which is covered in scratches, scrapes and lacerations.

I notice that Aelita was supporting her arm with the other. Concerned, I slightly squeeze her arm.

"Ow!" She shouts. "Tai!"  
>"Sorry, I just had to see, it's broken," I tell her.<br>"Yeah, I kinda gathered that," Aelita replies.  
>"I thought you might have," I say.<br>"Tai, don't joke," Aelita snarls, glaring at me.  
>"I'm sorry, I'm actually really worried about you," I say.<p>

I cast a quick look towards Zacky and decide I needed to chat with him.

"Aelita, will you be OK if I go see how Zacky's doing?" I ask her.  
>"Tai, I'm fine," Aelita answers.<br>"If you say so Princess," I say, walking over to my friend.

"So, Zacky, how are you doing?" I ask him.  
>"OK, better than Aelita, or you for that matter, at least I didn't skid across the shore," He jokes.<br>"Zacky, how did Aelita's arm get broken?" I ask, my eyes narrowing  
>"I have absolutely no idea," Zacky says. "She only had the cuts and scratches when we left,"<br>"Did you hit anything on the way here?"  
>"Come to think of it, I do remember a couple of rather dicky rocks,"<br>"I see, be more careful next time or I'll have you curb stomp the demon trees,"  
>"There'll be a next time?"<br>"Definitely, I can't tell you if you'll remember this one though,"  
>"Huh?"<br>"We occasionally return in time, kinda like a massive reset button, and constant abuse thereof,"  
>"Reset button, you mean, if something big messes up, you can fix it?"<br>"Yep, but we can't bring back the dead,"  
>"Damn,"<br>"I know, anyway, you won't remember anything the reset button undoes unless you're part of our inner circle. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go strap Aelita into the catapult,"

I walk back over to Aelita. Her arm is bleeding steadily, though not too badly. I cradle her in my arms and carry her across to the catapult. She shifts herself into the right spot and I tie the ropes down.

"Do you want me to come?" I ask.  
>"No, Tai, you have to stay here," Aelita tells me.<br>"Why?"  
>"Gut instinct,"<p>

As soon as she says that, my phone goes off. I pick it up.

"Tai Crusade here, talk to me,"  
><em>"Tai? It's Jeremie. If you didn't know, there's an activated tower. I've talked with Dominic already. He's on his way with Ulrich and William, but we need Aelita. Is she…"<br>_"Yes, she's here, I'm about to launch her out of a catapult,"  
><em>"WHAT!"<br>_"Ask Dom,"

I hang up and grab the machete that Dominic had conveniently left next to the catapult. I felt a bit concerned with what I was about to do, I was about to catapult the girl of my dreams across a river lake thing, that's being XANA'd. But I knew it was for a good cause. I reluctantly release the ropes, sending Aelita flying across the water; she thankfully lands safely in a pile of leaves across the bank. Since Aelita had asked me to stay here, I was left with an acute lack of objectives, so I joined Zacky in sitting on the shore.

"Zacky, you bored?" I ask.  
>"Yep," He responds.<br>"The way I see it there's two options. One: We swim back to our island to curb stomp some demon trees. Two: We try to avoid drowning," I say as a massive Tsunami swamps the shore.

I swim for the surface, but the current just keeps pulling me down. Zacky manages to get out of the water, as does everyone else, except me. I see through clouded eyes that Zacky is flailing, trying to grab me, to no avail. I drift across the water, towards the opposite bank. I'm on my last bit of oxygen when a cold hand grasps the nape of my neck and pulls me out of the water.

"Tai?" The owner of the hand asks me.  
>"Y-Yumi?" I reply, coughing.<br>"Yeah, why were you in there; and during a XANA attack no less?" She asks.  
>"XANA," I say.<br>"Well that explains things then," Yumi replies.  
>"Indeed. Dom, Ulrich and Aelita are headed to Lyoko, and everyone else is on those islands," I say, motioning to the islands.<p>

I wince as a sharp pain shoots through my right leg. I drop down onto my knees. I look down at my right ankle, where the pain started, and sure enough, there was a glistening coat of blood around it. When I thought back, I remembered a sharp rock digging into my leg when I was under.

"Ow," I say, fairly bored despite the pain in my leg.  
>"Ow? That's all you can say?" Yumi asks, trying to hold back a grin.<br>"Yeah, so?" I ask.  
>"Nothing,"<br>"I'm gonna have to get back over there. More specifically to the far island, there's a few living plants over there,"  
>"OK then, though the likeliness of you getting back there are slim,"<br>"Meh, Zacky can do it then,"

I sit on the shore as I had done with Zacky moments before the Tsunami got me here. I saw a swirling mist forming from the bottom of one of the power lines.

_'The Hounds of Tindalos,' _I think. _'Interesting,'_

I quickly realise that this mist was not the beginning of the emergence of the Hounds of Tindalos as I had first thought. The mist didn't take a more corporeal form, as the Hounds would, rather it remained as a mist.

The mist moved, however. It moved towards Yumi, creeping slowly to remain conspicuous. Yumi turned to see the mist at the last possible moment, and by then it was too late. The mist, which looked more like smog now, forced itself down her throat. Yumi dropped to her knees, her hands clutching her throat. My immediate assumption was that it was attempting to choke her to death, though that idea was soon purged from my mind.

Yumi suddenly stopped gagging and her hands fell to her sides. She arose to her feet and turned to glare at me. Her irises and pupils no longer visible in her eyes. They were replaced by the Eye of XANA.

"Oh shit," I say, turning and sprinting as fast as I could away from Yumi.

Unfortunately, she was faster and tripped me. My jaw rebounded off of a community rubbish bin and I fell limp on my back. I was lying helpless on the kerb, my mind still trying to recalibrate. Yumi closed her hands around my neck and pulled me into the air. Her grasp tightened, forcing the air from my lungs. Damn, I never expected her to be strong. Well, I always kinda knew she was strong, but I would've never guessed THIS strong.

Using the last ounce of energy I had left, I pushed myself off Yumi's body. Three breaths later and I was ready to fight. I ducked and parried Yumi's blows multiple times before I was able to land a quick string of kicks. The height of my kicks ascended rapidly. First a kick to the ankle, then one to knee, followed soon by one to the hip, then another, this time in the ribs. I finally kicked her in the head, putting full force behind the swing of my leg.

Yumi brushed it off as though I had simply poked her.

_'What's it gonna take for me to beat her?'_ I think. _'She's practically invincib…'_

I wasn't able to conclude my thought as Yumi had fired sith lightning at me. I can see why Luke Skywalker was in immense pain when Emperor Palpatine was using it on him in Return of the Jedi. It hurts like hell. Though that simile isn't effective unless one has experienced the pain of hell personally.  
>The lightning lifted me off the ground. It moved as though it was a living being. The electrical tendrils holding me aloft tighten around my throat as Yumi's hands had done previously. It began to creep into my mind that I was going to die. The girlfriend of one of my best friends was going to murder me. Though the circumstances were somewhat out of my control.<p>

I was beginning to black out. Darkness crept across my vision. I suddenly dropped to the ground. I look up to see my saviour. Through my blurry vision I'm only able to make out a large upward spike of blonde hair. So I was saved by Paul Phoenix then. Nice. It wasn't Paul Phoenix though. As my vision cleared I saw purple clothing.

"Odd?" I ask, though I already knew it was him.  
>"Yep, at your service, Commander Crusade," He replies.<br>"Skip with the pleasantries Della Robbia, and explain how you got here, and how bad the Demon Plant Plague is," I demand.  
>"Rowed, bad," Odd answers.<br>"Difficult rowing?" I inquire.  
>"You could say that," Odd responds.<p>

Yumi had returned to her feet at this point. I shoot a quick ninja kick towards her face. She catches it. She also catches Odd's. I nod at Odd and we enzuigiri her at the same time, freeing ourselves long enough to flag down a taxi.

"Take us anywhere that's not where she is," I say, pointing at Yumi.  
>"Understood," The driver responds; flooring it.<p>

"So Odd, did you come straight here or did you go to the other island first?" I ask.  
>"Straight here, I figured you'd come here too, so I thought you could use some backup," Odd answers.<p>

I was beginning to wonder if Dom had gotten to the factory yet. The taxi pulls up in front of Kadic. Go figure.

"This is as far as I can get you two," The driver says.  
>"OK," Odd replies as we run onto the campus and into the forest.<br>"Flooded," I say, checking the manhole in the clearing.  
>"Well, we won't be going to the factory then will we?"<p>

My cellphone, which I thanked god it was waterproof; chose this moment to go off. The caller ID informed me that Jeremie wanted to speak at me again.

_"_Yes Belpois?" I answer.  
><em>"Do you know where Dominic, Ulrich and Aelita are?"<br>_"Nope,"  
><em>"They're not at the factory yet,"<br>_"Kindly inform them upon arrival that they should've got there sooner, Yumi's under XANA's control by the way,"

I choose this moment to hang up, since talking to Jeremie wasn't a priority. Odd and I walk up into the school's dormitory building, having known the sewers were flooded. I wasn't in the most boss-like mood at the time, so I elected to not be bothered swimming to the Renault factory.

I practically barrel into Jim as I fly off the last stair of the flight to our barrack level.

"Odd, just so you know, I have absolutely no idea what to do when Yumi gets here," I tell him.  
>"That's just dandy isn't it?" He answers.<br>"Quite. Meh, we'll reset button this anyway,"

At this moment, Yumi burst through the door to our room. Thinking on instinct more than common sense, I throw Odd at Yumi, knocking her off her feet, grab the case in which I had my most important possessions and pull a Seto Kaiba, jumping out of the window.

"I have far too much money to die from this!" I boldly declare to XANA-Yumi before I do this. I keep a fair sense of humour in my statement.

I fall down towards the courtyard, in which I notice the wreckage of a bus.

_'Dom,'_ I immediately conclude in my mind. _'If Aelita got hurt, I'll kill him,'_

Pain was about to meet me though. I was about to defy logic and survive this jump. Once I hit about the ceiling level of floor one, I fling my case towards the ground, it skids across and comes to rest by the bus. I angle my descent so I'm able to commando roll out of it, coming off unscathed. This was probably the most boss-like thing I would ever do in my life. I pick up my case and run towards the campus gates.

I look towards the exit to the school and find that Michael Reilly, the caretaker, had shut the gates. How irritating. I jump onto the base bar of the metal fencing and flip over the top bar, keeping a firm grip on it throughout the move. When I land on the opposite side of the fence, I run off in the general direction of the factory.

The chaotic traffic could never be a help. I roll across bonnets, spring off boots and jump across roofs, trying to get to the factory. An oncoming pickup truck's storage unit catches me in mid jump, dragging me away from where I want to be going.

_'Don't these people realise that I'm trying to STOP the freakish weather?' _I think as I jump from the vehicle.

The rain continues to increase in intensity, leaving me newly soaked in seconds. I made a mental note to kill water when this was over. Kill it with fire.

I turned to run to the factory again, and was met by the unpleasant sight of Scott Calibre.

"Calibre, to what do I owe the displeasure?" I ask.  
>"Crusade, the displeasure is all mine," Scott replies. "Have you seen Aelita?"<br>"I have not, and I suggest you stay away from her unless you want to end up in hospital," I tell Scott.  
>"And why would that be? Do you think she's yours and yours alone, Mr. Crusade?" Scott taunts.<br>"Calibre, I know Aelita can choose whoever she wants to be with, be it me, Belpois, you, or anyone else. I'm capable of being a friend,"  
>"Are you, Crusade?" Scott inquires<br>"Scott, I've had enough of this conversation, good day," I say and turn to walk away.

A bolt of lightning cracks down on the spot I was standing a moment before. I feel the heat on my back and break into a sprint, the bolt of lightning dragging along the ground and singing its track into the sidewalk. This bolt was following me. It was to be expected since the storm was controlled by XANA.

"What's worse Tai: This storm or the Hounds of Tindalos?" I ask myself.  
>"About even, I'd say," Odd says, running out of an alleyway, XANA-Yumi on his trail.<p>

"Odd, when I pull a Seto Kaiba and jump out of our dorm window; it means stay away from me until I formulate a good plan to get us out of this mess," I tell him.  
>"Sorry boss, but right now can we try to get away from Yumi and that lightning!" Odd yells, his pace increasing.<br>"Sure, why not?" I joke, trying to keep a positive composure throughout the crazy circumstances we were faced with.

XANA-Yumi tackles Odd to the ground.

"Odd!" I yell.  
>"Go on without me!" He screams, trying to be dramatic.<br>"OK, and stick to the jokes," I say, continuing to run from the demon lightning.

I feel hundreds of small impacts on my skin and it immediately occurred to me that it was hailing heavily. Just what I needed. Honestly, hail was not something I enjoyed on a good day, but XANA controlled hail, that was going overboard.

The lightning bolt continued pursuing me throughout the hailstorm. I wonder why XANA has to be such a pain. Can't he go bother Ethiopia, or some other country nobody even knows the existence of. Though I guess it was because I was battling against this messed up piece of coding.

"I wonder how Dom's doing," I say under my breath, leaping off of a ledge and commando rolling out of the lightning's path at the last possible second.

I stand up from the roll and run off along the riverbank. The lightning bolt was no longer chasing me. Something was actually going my way for once. I smiled, but that smile faded quickly when I say the demon trees skating across the water.

"Well, fuck," I mutter, increasing my pace to a heavy sprint.

The first of the trees makes shore, right into a roundhouse kick. The next jumps clean into the path of my elbow. The next one is headbutted into the fourth. The headbut hurt slightly, but I pressed onwards to try to get to the factory, because I knew that things could not be good there.

XANA-Yumi jumps out from a side street, Odd was slung over her shoulders, unconscious. Sighing deeply, I drop into a combat stance I created from a combination of Capoeira, Kickboxing and shoot wrestling. I go to sweep XANA-Yumi's foot out from underneath her, but she jumps at the last possible second and avoids it. Thankfully, my training had taught me to anticipate a jump evasion, so I snaked my other foot up, catching her in the jaw. I see a parked motorcycle in the corner of my eye, and to my luck, the keys remained in the ignition.

I leapt onto the bike and rode away from XANA-Yumi and the unconscious Odd as fast as possible. My destination: The factory, or somewhere close to it, where I could finally get out of the freaking storm.

The traffic hadn't let up since I had last run through it. Cars were driving against me on both sides of the road. Does anyone actually know the freaking road code! You know, I was surprised the weather had allowed those cars to remain on the road. I swerve the bike up onto the footpath. I had to do anything to avoid these evil drivers.

I feel a distinct burning pain strike my lower back and I'm flung from the motorcycle which subsequently crashes into a fire hydrant. The hydrant fires up into the air and a column of water shoots up out of it. I turn to look at where the pain originated from. XANA-Yumi was walking towards me, her hands crackling with sith lightning.

"Can't you just leave me alone for twenty minutes?" I yell, throwing the broken motorcycle back at her head.

She swats it away like it was a measly fly and blasts me with further sith lightning as I try to run away yet again. This was really starting to become an annoyance, rather than an actual physical pain.

"I've had enough here Yumi," I say, standing despite the lightning flashes.

Yumi just grunts and intensifies the lightning. I falter for a moment but I retain my resolve and walk further and further away from her. I had a bad feeling shit was gonna go down at the factory, if it hadn't already begun that is.

I finally break free of the lightning and shoot off at full speed away from XANA-Yumi, as I ran by him; I scooped Odd up and threw him at Yumi. She dodged him and charged for me. My foot snaked out in a super-kick motion, catching her below the jaw.

She faltered for a moment, giving me a chance to run again. I heard the unmistakeable siren of a police vehicle and my pace quickened. To any bystander who hadn't seen the lightning show; I had just kicked a female in the jaw. That wasn't on in this world.

"Flag this," I say, skidding to a halt. I duck into a side street and call Dom's phone. It goes straight to answer phone and seeing as his phone is always charged, he had to have been on Lyoko. I smiled, knowing that this would soon be over. I called the factory phone next, it was answered instantly.

_"Yes?"_ Jeremie's voice says.  
>"Belpois, this is Tai, how're things going?"<br>_"Oh, Crusade, it's you, well, things aren't going particularly well, Ulrich was de-virtualised moments after he was virtualised, and Dominic, Lyra and Aelita are on Lyoko, trying to get to Sector Five, where the tower is,"  
><em>"I wasn't aware there was a tower in Carthage,"  
><em>"There is, but they were virtualised into the Ice Sector,"<br>_"Brilliant, well, Odd's out cold and Yumi's a sith lord, and trying to murder me, I'm about 104.9719% sure it's XANA's fault,"  
><em>"I see,"<em>

"Ensure that everything's fine there, and kindly inform Dominic that I'm gonna kill him, I saw what he did to the bus,"

I hit the end button on my phone and cast my eyes to the entrance to the side street. It was completely blocked by police officers. I took a moment to ensure they weren't turned into sith lords by XANA, as Yumi had been. They weren't, so that helped me a slight bit, but they were still police, and having police on you is never a good thing.

"Problem, Officers?" I ask, trying to be as polite as possible.  
>"Yes, we witnessed you kicking a young Asian girl in the jaw a few minutes ago, care to explain yourself?" The front officer said<br>"Sure, I've got nothing to lose, and we'll reset button this soon enough, so I may as well tell the truth," I reply  
>"Good, start talking kid," The officer says, slightly angry.<br>"You see, Officers, the girl you witnessed me super-kicking not long ago was and still is possessed by an evil piece of computer software by the name of XANA and... Flag it; you won't believe the truth,"  
>"Why not?"<br>"The truth is far too quote unquote 'far-fetched' for anyone not in on it to believe,"

The officers begin to advance towards me, and I stand my ground against them. I refuse to move the slightest millimetre. A few elect to train taser guns in my direction, in an ill conceived effort to scare me. When you've had to live in the same room as Dominic Slater for ten years, you don't get scared easily. It rubs off of him, that kid's fearless.

"Look, Officers, this whole thing has a valid solution that can be used to avoid anything going wrong, the only issue is I have absolutely no idea what that solution is right now," I say, again taking my combat stance.

If I had to fight off a group of cops to save the planet, then so be it. I see smog identical to that which possessed Yumi a while ago emerge from the power lines overhead. It crept towards the police officers and soon it had enveloped them, turning them into temporary minions of XANA.

I bolted while they were struggling with the smog, which had blanketed them. I jump up and grab onto a ladder on the side of a building. I quickly ascend the ladder up into the fire escape. From the balcony of the fire escape, I climb up the pipe to the roof of the building. I got my first proper view of the area since this ordeal began.

Several roads were flooded, and multiple roofs had fallen from their corresponding houses. Squinting, I'm able to make out that one of the roofs belongs to Yumi's house. Great, as if she wasn't mad enough already; now she had this to be mad about too.

The cops leapt up onto the roof behind me. Feeling the sudden application of a group weight to the roof, I turn to meet them.

"Sith lords; I assume," I say, trying to maintain a positive composure.

The crackling of electricity at their fingertips confirms my assumption, they were indeed XANA'd. I seriously wonder how long it would take for them to get to Carthage to kill the freaking tower so we could reset button everything. This whole sith lord deal was starting to annoy me. Though I can easily view the upcoming rooftop battle as being intense, seeing as these XANA controlled sith minus lightsaber cops were practically invincible. I wouldn't kill them by throwing them off this roof.

The fight just got a lot more interesting.

I roll forward, extending my right leg as I do so, catching the front sith cop with my foot, he staggers back into a pair of other cops, causing them to tumble over the edge of the roof and plummet five floors to their non-doom. Smirking, I roundhouse kick another cop, and punch a third in the ribs. I had high hopes my knowledge of all oriental pressure points on the human body would be of help to me.

I catch the next guard with a double jab to pressure points in each shoulder, followed by a hard kick to the stomach, then one to the back of his head. Fighting cops wasn't as guilt wrenching as I had expected; though that could just be due to the fact they were more lightsaber-less sith then cops right now, and would likely remain that way until we hit the reset button. What was taking them so long? I had more than one reason to murder Dominic now. He was making me fight cops to stay alive for the reset.

One of the cops grabs me in a full nelson hold and another starts hitting me with his nightstick. (A/N: No homo) I start to cough up blood. Darkness creeps into the edges of my plane of sight. I fought the sleep emerging from my mind, not knowing if it would be a permanent sleep or not.

I was close to losing the fight when I felt the grip on my arms and neck fade away. My eyes soon re-adjust to the light and I see Zacky and Odd, both of them fighting off a cop. It was about time this thing evened out a bit. I leap over Zacky and Odd to kick another cop in the nose, causing him to stumble off the edge of the building.

"Zacky, this is a normal day in our lives," I say. "Fighting cops on a rooftop, amongst an extremely evil and annoying storm,"  
>"Fun," Zacky says sarcastically, throwing a right hook punch at his adversary.<br>"It is," Odd responds, not a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

I strike five pressure points in quick succession, followed by a rolling elbow on the cop that had spoken to me back in the alley. He falters slightly, he was stronger than the rest, but I managed to pry his pistol from its holster at his side. I smack the gun, ensuring that it was loaded; cocked it, and pointed it square at his chest. Despite the situation, I couldn't help but bring song lyrics into my thoughts.

_'My hand is on the trigger, I'm ready to ignite,' _I mentally sang, keeping the gun trained on the cop.

Knowing that if I killed the cop, he wouldn't return when the reset button was hit, I unload the gun at his feet. The gun was just a chunk of metal now, so I lobbed it over the edge. Realising that the number of cops hasn't actually dwindled at all, despite five being dropped off the edge; I decide to perform a tactical reverse advance.

I motion for Odd and Zacky to follow me, and we throw ourselves off the building, using the pipe to stop ourselves from dying. I suddenly swing through a fourth floor window, Odd and Zacky close behind.

"It's going to be less painful getting out this way," I explain; walking towards the door, which suddenly explodes out of the frame, and XANA-Yumi enters.

"Can't you just flag off Yumi?" I yell.  
>"Tai, it's obvious she can't," Odd answers me.<br>"True," I say, throwing a photo frame at her in a rage.

She shatters the frame with sith lightning; before turning the attack on us. The electrical tendrils send Zacky flying into a china cabinet, shattering several fragile crystal items inside; and causes Odd to be flung into the hall.

I was left alone against XANA-Yumi yet again. I was physically exhausted from my battle with the sith cops, so I wasn't much of a match for the fresh XANA-Yumi. I was lifted into the air by the lighting. XANA-Yumi walked towards the window and dropped me into the void of thin air.

I tumbled downwards towards the hard concrete below, exhaustion preventing me from grasping a handhold. Could Dominic hurry up with that reset butt...  
>My thoughts trailed of as the silver bubble indicating the activation of the reset button enveloped me. (AN: This chapter was physically painful to write, I had NO ideas for it.  
>Anyways; once I finish my exams and get a new laptop I'll be back) <p>


End file.
